I think it's more like 'have you thought up a new name that is "catchy" and no one else has beat you to it'
Even if I was copying a fly it sure wouldn't look like the prototype. So - if I could think up a sweet name I may have a new pattern

Fly tying is like music, there are only 8 notes but billions of combinations that are rarely ever repeated. Claiming to invent a fly is like claiming to invent music. You don't invent music, you become a composer of that music.

I have composed many original scores and performed many classics.I even have a few that have been been licensed by major fly manufactures.

I've composed a few dozen over the years. A few of my favorites are: LB Spey, Redwing Blackbird Spey, Night Dancer Shrimp, GB Shrimp, Skykomish Sunrise Shrimp, and Hot Pink & Orange GP. My favorite chum coho, and king fly the Fuschia Bunny Leech I 1st tied in 1991 was copied by someone else a few years later who then got one of the fly companies to tie it offshore and market it, of course he collected the royalties for it despite having copied it.

It depends, are you looking to profit from these "discoveries" or hoping to have the one or several flies that no one else has that makes your day but they go fishless ? In that case several dozen patterns.